Jonesboro-Hodge and Cedar Creek battled for roughly two hours in a controlled scrimmage this Friday that earned mixed reviews from the JHHS coaching staff. The contest was played at Caldwell-Peacock stadium in Jonesboro and was conducted by both teams taking twenty “field” snaps each with their first team and second offenses, ten “goal line” snaps each and ended with the two teams playing full field with a live 12:00 minute clock.
“We have a long way to go and a short time to get there,” said JHHS head coach Terrance Blankenship, who is entering his ninth year as the leader of the Tiger braintrust.
JHHS started slowly in the “field” snaps portion of the scrimmage on both sides of the ball causing Blankenship and assistants Carlos Hicks, Justin Durbin, Anthony Anderson and Robert Hunter plenty of opportunities to provide correction.
“We looked bad at the start. Guys were in the wrong place or ran the wrong routes,” reflected Blankenship. “I not surprised though as we have had several players not able to practice as much as I would like due to obligations they had before school started.”
As the number of plays that the Tigers ran increased though so did the production, especially on the offense which looks to be geared toward the passing game this year if the plays that were ran is any indication.
“After the guys got loose they played better but we have a lot of things we are going to have to improve on a lot of things if we are going to be the kind of team we expect to be.”
When it came to the “goal line” portion of the scrimmage Blankenship had nothing good to say.
“We were horrible. That was as ugly a performance by our defense as I can remember,” said the disgruntled head coach. “We had a distinct size advantage on Cedar Creek but they blew us off the ball time and again. That has to be fixed and quick.”
Maybe it was just that the Tigers needed to feel like it was a real game because when the clock started running, J-H began to look like the team that the coaching staff was hoping to see.
“As bad as we looked early on we did some good things in the “live” portion of the scrimmage, which I am happy about as it showed the guys were correcting the mistakes they made at first,” concluded Blankenship. “Hopefully they will continue to improve this week in practice so we can make a good showing at the Bayou Jamb.”
There were a couple of players that Blankenship pointed out as having a good scrimmage and deserved to be recognized.
“Jay Lewis and Catavious Waters did a good job for us today,” said Blankenship. “They both played with a lot of heart and made plays when they had the chance.”
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